If you tripped and fell while delivering food for GrubHub, contact us today about your injuries and we will see if and how we can help you.
If open at all, restaurants in California are servicing the public on a limited basis. Some are treading economic waters by providing carryout and delivery menu items to customers. It’s those deliveries that GrubHub is involved in. It has a network of delivery couriers who pick up packaged meals from restaurants and deliver them to the people who ordered them. Delivery customers can even order certain foods directly from GrubHub.
GrubHub Couriers
People who deliver for GrubHub are gig workers. A gig worker might be out of work from his or her regular job and making deliveries for GrubHub for a regular income. Even out of work actors deliver for the company in order to make ends meet. Other people who have full-time jobs deliver for GrubHub on a part-time basis to supplement their incomes. The legal status that all of these delivery couriers share though is that they’ve all acknowledged in writing that they’re independent contractors and not employees of GrubHub. If they’re hurt on the job, they’re not eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. That doesn’t mean that they can’t exercise other options for compensation for their injuries and damages though.
Where Were You Hurt?
Aside from motor vehicle accidents, it has been well-established that some of the most common accidental injuries involve trip-and-falls. The most common trip-and-fall accidents involve faulty stairs, uneven walking surfaces, holes in sidewalks or parking lots and obstructions on walking surfaces. If you tripped at a customer’s residence or business when making GrubHub delivery, its likely that there is a liability insurance policy in existence on the premises. As opposed to a workers’ compensation claim, you’ll be required to prove fault though. That requires you to prove one of the following:
- The owner or occupier of the property where the accident occurred created the dangerous condition that caused your fall.
- That owner or occupier knew of the dangerous condition that caused you to fall, but did nothing about it.
- The owner or occupier of the property should have known of the dangerous condition had reasonable inspection of the property been performed. He or she would then have removed the condition or repaired it.
Comparative Negligence
Any trip-and-fall claim or lawsuit brought by a GrubHub courier against an owner or occupier of land would be a civil action brought in a local Municipal Court. As opposed to a California workers’ compensation case, the law of comparative negligence would apply. If the parties are unable to come to a settlement, a jury would need to determine any percentage of negligence for the accident that might be attributable to the GrubHub courier. That percentage would then be deducted from a gross award. The good news is that any such award would include the courier’s pain and suffering and other damages that California workers’ compensation laws don’t provide for.
Contact the Rideshare Law Office:
Only a handful of trip-and-fall victims are capable of negotiating a favorable settlement before their claim phases into the litigation stage. For all of the others, an experienced and effective personal injury lawyer is needed. Seasoned insurance defense lawyers can make these cases quite complicated very quickly. After being injured in a trip-and-fall on a GrubHub delivery, contact our offices right away to arrange for a free consultation and case review. After hearing what happened and how it happened, we’ll be pleased to answer your questions and advise you on your best legal options.